P2P Calls in Air Strikes
Published March 28, 2003
Even as the lawsuit against Napster proceeded word of a new type of P2P software began to spread. First in the form of open source Gnutella, and later as the more scalable and efficient Kazaa, this software propagated and connected end users without any need for a central server. Again, the labels have sued. As I mentioned earlier, the first lawsuit involving KMD software resulted in a Dutch court holding that its distribution is legal. The current U.S. case has a long way to go to finality. Meanwhile, the KMD user base grows by three million per week - a tremendous audience of music fans and potential customers. The great irony, Mr. Chairman, is that even should the distributor of Kazaa software be shuttered by legal action, a result I think most unlikely, the software would continue to function! This shouldn't be much of a surprise - after all, the Internet Explorer web browser would continue to work even were Microsoft to disappear tomorrow; software has a life far beyond that of its creator or distributor. In any event, the unlikely closure of Sharman Networks would simply mean the end of streamed banner ads to online users of the software, not an end to its utility for file-sharing.
And if the current generation of self-distributing and decentralized P2P could be brought to heel, what next? That's an easy question to answer. "Stealth" P2P software is already becoming available that disguises IP addresses, encrypts files, and disperses content more comprehensively. If Kazaa and similar P2P software could be shut down, this is the next generation that file sharers would migrate to. Music swapping activity would also shift more toward online chat rooms, instant messaging software, and a physical "sneakernet" of optical, flash media, and hard drive storage. (The three major instant messaging software applications all have ties to the entertainment industry, so perhaps that is why it turns a blind eye to the more than one billion IMs that traverse the Internet each day, each of which can carry one or more media files using their ubiquitous file attachment feature.) All such activity would be far more difficult to measure or monetize than presently popular P2P software applications.
In other words, Mr. Chairman, each label legal assault against new technology has driven the online audience to a newer technology that is even more difficult to control and monetize. Yet the labels don't seem to understand yet that Moore's Law is more powerful than copyright law. They don't seem to understand that this intuitive consumer utilization of technology should be monetized, not criminalized. They don't seem to understand that lawsuits are no substitute for business strategies. And they don't seem to understand that the best means of regaining control is to concede that the control they once enjoyed is gone forever. Instead, they mimic Mickey Mouse in the "Sorcerer's Apprentice" segment of the classic animated film "Fantasia". If I may make a fair use reference to that copyrighted Disney work, you will recall that in that cartoon Mickey conjures up a walking broomstick to draw water from the castle well. But Mickey hasn't learned the magic spell to make it stop, and a flood begins to ensue. So Mickey grabs an ax and begins to chop away - and each swing of the ax just doubles the number of uncontrollable broomsticks and accelerates the pace of the flooding.
- P2P Calls in Air Strikes
- Published: March 28, 2003
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- Section: Sci/Tech
- Filed Under: Sci/Tech: Internet, Music: News, Video: News
- Writer: Eric Olsen
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this was great i am happy to see that others are benifiting to open mindness
of new technologies/ and sad to see that the world is all about price gouging/ worries of hollywood suicide and most inportant greed. I believe point in case
as a consumer of movies and music and will come straight out and say it as no one else will -fear of are goverment I guess.
1. movies-are so many experience good and bad /sad and happy -and so many experinces have been held on the cinimatic screen exploited/ and life situations to catastrophies of floods/earthquakes to aliens and how we view them. theaters are great experinces
but some times the translation is lost
and can only be gained by home expirence . thanks to technolgy we have that choice. are own tiny theater -surround
speakers /flat screen tv's -can you accually blame people for not wanting to sit in a theatre were some lady smells and has a crying baby. also might i add
that downloading of a movie is a differn't experiance all together-you have this wierd tech-feeling you get that we accually have moved into the future 2004. That u can not belive that u are accually watching this on a computer and quite an overwellming feeling just ask the executives of the movie industry /when they wanted to know exactly what was going on with the p2p
and one them said ooh let me show u and downloaded the matrix revolutions. so point in case no matter if u are watching it on a hollywood screen or
a computer screen-if u like what u watched -its most likly going to influince you to purchase it on dvd.
(mundanity i love it.)
1. big fish-saw in theatre -bought it on dvd
2. finding nemo-down·load·ed-bought it on dvd
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Music it enriches are lives its one thing everyone agrees on -just not the form/ rap/hip-hop/ and boy bands and fake corporation meglaconglomerates
are now choosing the way we are to listen to music/ and how we are to view
who's hot and who's not. show's like american idol that cuts people's dreams and hopes down to size that does not fit the profile in fashion/and music style are outcasted. music should not be this way/ 2004 music terms are lets take the-sex out /no drugs/ hay what about just the rock and we can sell it as is.
nope it just doen't happen that way . some of the best groups like the sex-pistols were wacked out of their minds and made the best music. can u
imagine what john lennon would have been
like without drugs. the groups that no
one will hear such as revolver exept in small circles. here's my biggest point I own 3000 cd's used to have 2000 tapes
but traded them in for cd's. but still downloaded music to hear the new upcoming bands that no one wanted u to hear too controversial i guess. And help
people to experince music that they would not open up to. and vice versa
I have helped a 50 year old man to gain music back that his ex-threw out and thought he would never hear ever again.
Some of this music i downloaded I thought was good but not good enough to buy-as the letter to senator murry states just samplings never albums.
in a couple of cases was given full albums/ but one was the new mattalica and it just sucked sooooo bad that i gave it away. the other a new anthrax album-which i kept but plan to buy or get it at a pawn shop for the cover art .
and info in the jacket. so bottom line
music is music whatever the jonra. i have been buying cd's so long and also enjoy finding groups on the net like maroon 5 /overkill and d.r.i / groups not many listen too. last point -distrubution of these kind of music
can be bought but are hard to find it's either bidding on ebay for em-or special order. just try and find scars of the crucifix -from deicide not a liked group but hay someone listens to it.
thanks for the time/ viva la p2p controversy and the history that is made.